


Stay The Night

by carrionkid



Category: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Genre: Angst, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Pre-Canon, Sleepovers, Sleepovers Are The Best Time For Sad Revelations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 09:01:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11825430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carrionkid/pseuds/carrionkid
Summary: Hey I'm Lucas and all I do is read too much into movie franchises... Anyway, neither Bill or Ted seem to have too good of a family situation going on so I felt like exploring that and uh... yeah. This is a fic about being lonely and trying to Deal With Stuff.--Over the course of their long friendship, Bill and Ted have had some of the most excellent sleepovers in all of human existence. However, some of them were very decidedly non-triumphant and those ones were steadily becoming more numerous than the excellent ones.





	Stay The Night

Over the course of their long friendship, Bill and Ted have had some of the most excellent sleepovers in all of human existence. However, some of them were very decidedly  _ non- _ triumphant and those ones were steadily becoming more numerous than the excellent ones. 

 

The phone rings twice in the silent house before Bill slides down the bannister of the staircase and grabs it. It’s Ted, of course, because nobody else ever calls him and the people who could hypothetically call him wouldn’t do so at midnight on a school night. 

 

“Hey dude,” he keeps his voice quiet even though there isn’t much that could happen to wake his dad up.

 

“ _ Hey  _ dude,” Ted mumbles back, voice also very quiet in a most uncharacteristic way, “Can I spend the night?”

 

“Yeah, of course!”

 

Ted lets out a sigh of relief, “Excellent.”

 

“Excellent,” Bill agrees, tucking the phone into the space between his ear and his shoulder so he can do air guitar. It kind of defeats the purpose by doing it when Ted can’t see it but it just feels right to do it anyway.

 

“I’ll be there in five,” Ted hangs up. 

 

Bill wanders over to the back patio and sits cross legged in front of the sliding glass patio door that overlooks the garden in the back yard. In a few more than five minutes, since his friend is rarely punctual for a plethora of reasons, he sees Ted climb up and over the fence into Bill’s backyard in a fashion that is most graceful for Ted. He stands up and unlocks the sliding door to let Ted in.

 

“Do we have to sneak back to your place tomorrow morning?”

 

“No,” Ted flashes a lopsided grin, “Dad’s working nights this week. I just have to ensure that Deacon eats enough and gets to school on time. We can pick him up tomorrow.”

 

“Excellent! Missy, I mean,  _ Mom’s _ making french toast tomorrow and her recipe is most impeccable. And she won’t care if you slept over.” 

 

Since it’s a school night, they skip straight to the lying alone in the dark and talking portion of a typical sleepover. Normally, they’d do something before trying to sleep but they’ve both fallen asleep in Algebra at least five too many times. The room is thick with silence and Bill’s eyes are almost closed and he’s quite certain Ted’s asleep when Ted speaks up from the floor.

 

“I am not very confident in the certainty that my dad loves me, dude.” 

 

Bill yawns and props himself up on his elbows, leaning over the edge of the bed to look down at Ted, “I’m sure he loves you, dude, he just expresses it in a most…  _ Atypical  _ way…”

 

“I don’t think he does,” Ted sighs and sits up, hair fallen completely into his eyes, “I think he loves a very specific idealization of me. But his standards are unattainably high and it’s most egregious.” 

 

Bill spends a few seconds chewing the inside of his mouth and thinking of whether or not he wants to voice his own concerns. It might detract from the gravity of Ted’s situation and that would be a most heinous thing to do to a friend in need.

 

He comes to a decision and sighs, “I must admit, I’ve also had this same inquiry… I mean, my dad bought me the guitars and the drumset and the big poster of our logo even though we don’t know how to play. All of which is decidedly triumphant, but it’s like he’s never there.”

 

Ted cocks his head and pushes his hair out of his eyes, “Explain, Bill.”

 

“Well, obviously he’s there physically, but it feels like he isn’t… It’s a most perplexing situation…”

 

“I know, Bill, I know.” 

 

“It’s almost like he thinks he can buy enough things to make up for not actually doing anything. It’s bogus. Especially since it doesn’t seem too hard to just  _ do  _ something.” 

 

Ted makes a noise of affirmation and lays back down on the pile of pillows on the floor. Eventually Bill stops staring down at him and lays back in the bed. Then, he shifts to lying on his side. Then his other side. He kicks the blankets off. Then, he sits up and pulls them back on again. 

 

He flops down with a resigned sigh and whispers, “Dude, come up here.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Come up here. I totally can’t sleep.” 

 

There’s no reply but he can hear the telltale rustling of someone getting out of bed. He slides over and lets Ted climb into the bed. It’s kind of crowded but not uncomfortably so. Ted is warm and sleepy and Bill feels safe in the way he always does whenever he’s with Ted.

 

“You know,” Bill leans over until he’s butting his head up against Ted’s shoulder, “You’re basically perfect, dude. You are most kind and considerate and I don’t think you should try to change to attain heinously high standards.”

 

“You are a most excellent friend, dude.”

 

“As are you, Ted.”

 

There’s another lapse of silence, then Ted groans, “We’re totally gonna fall asleep in Algebra tomorrow…”

 

“I know, Ted, I know.”


End file.
